Coaching Notes: Bosio, Honeycutt, Espada, Padres

The latest on some coaching vacancies (or potential vacancies) around baseball…

The Tigers are “close” to hiring Chris Bosio as their next pitching coach, Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times tweets. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal previously reported that Bosio was Detroit’s top choice for the job. Bosio worked as the Cubs’ pitching coach for the previous six seasons before being fired after Chicago’s elimination in the NLCS.

It isn’t yet certain if longtime Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt will remain in his current job in 2018, Bill Shaikin of the L.A. Times reports. Honeycutt’s two-year contract is up after the World Series and, at the time of the contract’s signing, it was believed that Honeycutt would into a front office job at deal’s end. GM Farhan Zaidi, however, said that “If there’s mutual interest in him continuing in this role, I wouldn’t rule it out,” noting that “We just want to leverage his expertise and experience however we can, with whatever [job] makes the most sense.” Both Zaidi and Honeycutt said that no decisions would be made until after the season is over, with Honeycutt adding “I’m enjoying it as much this year as I ever have. I still enjoy what I do.”

Yankees third base coach Joe Espada could be a candidate to be the next bench coach for either the Astros or Red Sox, George A. King III of the New York Post writes. Espada has worked in his current role for three seasons, and has previously worked as a Yankees scout, a manager in the Puerto Rican Winter League and as a minor league coach in the Marlins organization. Espada has also been mentioned as a potential contender for the Yankees’ managerial vacancy.

The Padres will move first base coach Johnny Washington to the assistant hitting coach role and outfield coach Jon Matthews has been reassigned to a new role, Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports (Twitterlinks). 2017 was Washington’s only season as a first base coach; he spent the rest of his nine-year coaching career as a hitting coach at various levels of the Dodgers’ and Padres’ farm systems. Lin notes that the Padres will fill their first base coaching vacancy from within the organization.

Geren calling pitches and primary stats guy as bench coach; good fit with Honeycutt’s competencies. Gives Honeycutt a promotion and allows team to bring in a new and younger pitching coach who has a terrific mentor and allows current pitching staff to make a seamless transition.

You guys are crazy thinking he’s terrible. Honeycutt gets ahold of a potential ace, he and Koufax mold them into stars. Cough cough Kersh, Maeda, Ryu, Darvish even. Hell even Murrow, Baez, etc. Even if they aren’t Aces, they still pitch with that old school aggression which makes each one as intimidating as the last. He’s a great mentor and with the aid of Koufax, LA has the best pitching coaching. Give the guy credit where it’s due. LAs pitching staff didn’t wake up and become great.